Well people the day we have been anxiously waiting for is finally here! It comes with a little sadness though as the holiday season is over and now I am back at work again. I spent the month of December looking forward to my 11 days off, but now it is all over. It is a good thing that I have sports to look forward to now!
The B1G continued to show that it is a pretty terrible football conference yesterday when the conference played in 5 games and somehow found a way to win just 1. The teams did a great job in proving that last year's New Years Day was not a fluke. Now a lot of the conference's appearance falls directly on the shoulders of Brady Hoke's Michigan team for 2 games in a row (tonigh in the Sugar Bowl vs the Hokies and 2012 opener vs Bama). There will need to be some pretty big upsets in the next year to get the B1G football respect back.
Michigan gets one of the conferences most favorable draws in the bowl season, even though it comes on a BCS stage. We missed out on playing Bama, Arkansas, Baylor, or even Boise St and have been matched up with an extremely over rated Virginia Tech team. It is a perfect stage for Michigan to win its first BCS game since the Orange Bowl 12 years ago. Now lets hope they do not come out and play some Lloyd Carr bowl game.
Virginia Tech's offense focuses on a previous Michigan recruit David Wilson, who is a very good and powerful running back. It will be a difficult task to keep him under 100 yards tonight. The Hokie's QB (Logan Thomas) is a large dude that has a pretty good deep ball, but other than that is not too special. He will scramble in the pocket quite a bit, and is strong enough to avoid many sacks. He was sacked the least amount in the ACC this year. Thomas also will run a little bit, definitely not like Denard or Braxton Miller from Ohio, but enough that we will likely have to keep a linebacker spy in on most plays. The receiving corps from VaTech is underwhelming, and does not have the talent of other teams we have seen this year (WMU, Notre Dame, MSU, Iowa, Ill, and Ohio). The key for Michigan will to not let these guys behind them in coverae to avoid the big play. The Michigan defense did a great job of this more most of the year. For having such a solid running game, the Hokie offensive line is pretty bad. The interior lineman have been consistently beaten in games vs bad ACC teams. I expect Mike Martin and RVB to go out in style tonight with at least 3 QB hurries each, and possibly a sack for our two best lineman. Look for Big Will Campbell to see a lot of playing time tonight since Heninger is still injured, and Hoke will want to continue to see what type of Dline he will have returning next season. VaTechs OTackles are above average, so Craig Roh and Jake Ryan might have a hard time rushing the passer or even stopping the run, but hopefully they can funnel Wilson to the LBs.
The Michigan offense matches up very well against most teams, and Virginia Tech is no different. The VaTech Dline is pretty underwhelming. Our big guys up front should be able to give Denard enough time to look down field, and create some big running lanes for Fitz and Shoelace. I expect Molk to destroy the interior Dline for most of the game and have one of his best games of his career. Virginia Tech has the 13th ranked defense in th nation, so even though the dline has been over matched for most of the season, they still do a good job in funneling plays to their linebackers. Fuller plays all over the field for Bud Foster's defense, and is a Troy Polumalu impersonater. He is not even close to as talented, but he is able to rush the QB almost any time he wants. He will be the key tonight to Denard having one of the best bowl games in football history, or just having a standard Denard game. If Molk can get into the second line of defenders and put a hat on Fuller tonight, the scoreboard might think the Saints are still playing... and scoring.
Beamer ball looks to be the only advantage the Hokies have tonight against the suprising Wolverines, but not so fast... VaTech will be using its 3rd string kicker... yes that is right... 3rd string. I think our 3rd stringer is Zack Novak or Brady Hoke's daughter. This guy is most likely a joke and should help a lot with field position on kick offs and fielf goal attempts. A Michigan team actually has the advantage on special teams?!!?
On paper this game looks to be a runaway for the good guys, but it is a bowl game so anything can happen. But, Frank Beamer usually gets destroyed in bowl games. So there is a lot of good things in our favor tonight. How will Brady Hoke coach in his first BCS game? I think the offense will continue where it left off with Nebraska and Ohio, and will continue the 2011 bowl traditions of racking up crazy amounts of points and yards. I think our defense will struggle to tackle well for most of the game, and VaTech will be able use some draws and screens to beat our pass rush. I also think VaTech will have at least one big play (60+ yards) on a pass, run, or return to keep things closer than needed. In the end this is Michigan fergodsakes, and the Wolverines finish this dream season with a win and a top 10 ranking. Michigan 45 - Va Tech 28. Go Blue!
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